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Because of Dear Hubby, the tech geek (affectionately, of course), I have been online and blogging for a very long time...coming up on a decade in 2012 for this blog, as a matter of fact. More and more I feel like the grand dame of bloggers -- the sexy, fun, vibrant one, of course. [Congregation responds: "Of course!"] And so, here we are, 10 years later, and everything is different in the blogosphere. Things that were working five years ago, three years ago, even just last year, don't work anymore, in terms of revenue, interest and technique...to name just a few. It hasn't even been a gradual evolution of marketing, audience and technology. No, more like an epic revolution -- a Digital Spring, if you will, every six months!

While I may have been hesitant to fully embrace change in the past (or just too darn busy keeping up with life in The Real World), as an author, columnist, reviewer, freelance journalist, blogger and now SMM (Social Media Mom), it's time to update, renovate, rework, repurpose and revitalize the old girl.

Check it out & LIKE (please) -- but come right back, because, of course, I have a couple more thoughts on this for you, before I lose you to the awesomeness that is, indeed, Facebook:

Having put that out there, I have been thinking about the Evolution -- er, sorry, the
REVOLUTION(s) of Social Media on The Rebel Housewife...

Twitter @RebelUpdate

Twitter seemed to be the first legitimate uprising in Social Media, and I loved it, for a time, as I mentioned in June 2009:

However...interpersonal and professional communication is changing rapidly in the modern technology-addicted age. Even I have noticed. In the past couple of months, it seems everybody, every organization, every company, large and small, is on Twitter and/or one of the other big social networking sites. I am happy to Twitter, and have fairly successfully acclimated to it, but I'm not going to be MySpace-ing or FaceBook-ing any time soon. The biggest reason not: TMI!

In general, I've discovered my preference for receiving 140-character updates over longer emails, articles, newsletters, etc. - just the facts, please! I also discovered I like the limitation of 140 character messages when sending - Too Much Information, people. I am trying to simplify my life and suppress my own natural tendencies toward verbal spew...

I twittered happily through the summer of 2009, experimented with the concept of TWOGGING (as in, Twitter + Blogging = <3), but that didn't really seem to take off. I embraced 140-character updates. I liked that it was impersonal, that I could welcome the world to my public Twitter feed and not worry too much about privacy, since those little Tweets disappeared into the Twitterverse in a matter of minutes and really, what could you give away in 140 characters? [As it turns out, quite a lot in some cases, i.e. Anthony Weiner, but that was much later...] I indulged in Following, clicking the yes, please! for every passing interest and tenuous connection.

Twitter quickly became overwhelming. Seriously. A lot too impersonal, like thousands of people standing on line in a huge crowd blurting out soundbites. Twitter = Tourette's. It became increasingly difficult to engage with anyone or keep up with anything in the constantly-updating stream. I still check in, every once in a while, but I have realized, just as I am not that extroverted, party snippet, ADD-kind-of-girl in the Real World, I'm not that chatty or energetically interactive on the Internets, either. I like conversation and less sporadic interaction.

To Facebook or Not To Facebook...

And so we come to...Facebook. The Evil Empire of Ultimate Exposure and Disclosure, or so I thought, as I mentioned in May 2010:

I fought it for YEARS...but I am finally on the FaceBook and none too happy about it.

It is all so overwhelming: too much information, infinite points of contact and messaging, strangers lurking, inconvenient intrusions and the biggest potential time-suck I can imagine, especially for addictive personalities and compulsive sharers (I am/have been a member of both groups) -- no offense to my rabid FaceBook Friends who know how to FB and enjoy it, obviously a great deal.

Ha -- or should I say, LOL -- what a difference a year makes! I have since had my come-to-Jesus with Facebook, and I love it sooooo...

I joined FaceBook that summer, with a personal profile, for one reason only: to interact with our school community at the time, Georgia Cyber Academy, which was all virtual, with 6,000 students and families all over Georgia. Facebook was the primary means of communication and interaction among parents about school, activities, local offline events and everything related.

Once I joined and put it out there, personally, people found me, I found people and now I have almost 100 Friends, which is more than enough. People take all different approaches to Facebook -- from the very personal and intimate profile page to very public profiles and pages, with hundreds or thousands of virtual strangers hanging on every status update (or so they think). I prefer to know and have some connection to the people with whom I am communicating, interacting and sharing updates of my life and family -- with photos -- on my personal profile, anyway.

I tried to Facebook small, in the beginning. I enjoyed the interaction within the online school community, and then it started getting bigger. I discovered old friends from high school I hadn't seen or talked to in 25 years. And more found me. I connected with Dear Hubby's extended family all over the country. And more found me. Local friends and other random, wonderful connections. Ditto. And finally, just recently, on my personal profile, it happened: a Friend Request from a stranger, related by blood -- a half-sister, long-lost, which is a long story for another time, found by Facebook. And more found me.

So I am loving Facebook. It shrinks the big world and keeps us connected. To me, that is a wonderful thing. I even set up the private Facebook Group for parents at our new school to interact and keep in touch.

With my youngest former-homeschooler settling into a new school, it came time to get back to work: monetizing the website, new projects and book proposals, magazine articles and freelance work (all that revitalization I mentioned earlier). It quickly became obvious that Facebook Pages, for businesses, brands and public personalities, is the new calling card, online resume and a quick & easy means of interaction...and that's where we are today, for now, until the next big revolution...